The metabolic syndrome is an enormous public health problem because of its association with premature[unreadable] vascular disease. Our proposed SCCOR will define the mechanisms that link obesity, insulin resistance, the[unreadable] metabolic syndrome and atherosclerotic vascular disease. This information will be translated to the clinic to[unreadable] improve the care of people with the metabolic syndrome. One key component of the seamless transfer of[unreadable] new knowledge from bench to bedside is the confirmation in human tissues of critical observations made in[unreadable] animal models and cell systems. Building on a long history of research interactions between academic[unreadable] vascular surgeons and other investigators at Washington University, the Vascular Surgery and[unreadable] Histopathology Core Unit will leverage the established skills and tissue procurement infrastructure of the[unreadable] Section of Vascular Surgery to provide unique resources to this SCCOR in Vascular Injury, Repair, and[unreadable] Remodeling. The centralization of services within this core will provide effective and efficient utilization of[unreadable] valuable clinical resources and quality control that otherwise could not be achieved by individual Research[unreadable] Projects alone.[unreadable] The purposes of the Vascular Surgery and Histopathology Core (Core Unit C) are:[unreadable] (1) to recruit subjects for clinical research projects requiring patients with clinically-evident peripheral[unreadable] vascular disease;[unreadable] (2) to maintain a centralized database of clinical information pertinent to the metabolic syndrome for[unreadable] participating patients with vascular disease in order to facilitate correlations between clinical data and blood[unreadable] and tissue specimens;[unreadable] (3) to assist in the procurement, handling, maintenance and distribution of specimens from participating[unreadable] patients including blood and surgical tissue specimens; and[unreadable] (4) to perform histopathological staining and evaluation of blood vessel specimens obtained during surgical[unreadable] procedures and experimental studies.[unreadable] This Core Unit has the potential to help transform the care of people with metabolic syndrome by[unreadable] providing translational services to validate the clinical relevance of novel mechanisms contributing to[unreadable] vascular disease.